Mobility is a must for modern health care providers

Wednesday, February 21st, 2018

Mobility - as in using technology to work on the go - is making its way into nearly every industry, and healthcare is no exception to this trend. In fact, mobile health is proving to be an integral component of healthcare professionals providing quality care.

"84% of doctors use smartphones on the job."

The growing trend of mobile health
It's no secret that smartphones and tablets are making their way into every corner of our culture, which makes assigning practical, productive uses to these devices that much easier. Many clinicians are finding this type of technology especially helpful on the job.

In fact, according to a report from Kantar Media, 84 percent of doctors use smartphones on the job. Meanwhile, over half of clinicians use both smartphones and tablets for work. Based on past uses of this type of technology, mobility is on the rise in healthcare. Just five years prior to the release of this study, in 2010, only 53 percent of clinicians relied on smartphones for professional purposes.

Not only is this trend growing in popularity, it is also opening up opportunities to provide higher-quality care for patients and improve efficiency overall.

Better data collection
The healthcare industry is increasingly putting greater emphasis on collecting and analyzing patient health data. Physicians Practices elaborated on the importance of this initiative, explaining that extracting data is the only way in which doctors can measure quality improvement. This is especially vital in light of the switch from fee-for-service to value-based care, in which clinicians must demonstrate their contributions to better health outcomes in order to receive full reimbursement.

The use of smartphones and tablets provide opportunities for better data collection thanks to applications that allow doctors to enter and retrieve information from a patient's electronic health record from anywhere. That means doctors can quickly access data in the middle of patient appointments and enter new information during the consultation. The real-time access granted by mobile health ensures every detail is accounted for and not forgotten after the patient leaves the room.

Enhanced communication among colleagues
As care becomes more complex, communication among clinicians becomes even more important. According to a study published in the journal Pharmacy and Therapeutics, a patient's healthcare team is often spread out through multiple medical facilities and departments. In order to collaborate, medical providers must have a way to effectively communicate with one another.

Mobile health presents a solution to this challenge, as mobile devices provide many modes of connecting, from text messages and emails to phone calls and video chats. In fact, integration of this type of technology has proven successful in this regard in real medical facilities. A review published in the Journal of Medical Internet Research found mobile devices led to improved doctor-to-nurse communication in inpatient wards. Many clinicians believe this form of contact is more efficient than in-person meetings.

Mobile health may boost collaboration among physicians.

Improved time management
Physicians must be masters of time management in order to balance more technical duties like billing and coding with delivering high-quality care to patients. Writing for The New York Times, cardiologist Dr. Sandeep Jauhar explained that this facet of the medical field is only getting more difficult. Payment cuts have forced doctors to see more patients in order to earn a sufficient income, causing them to race through appointments. In turn, this prevents them from giving adequate attention to those in need - and patients are noticing. A study published in the British Medical Journal found that patients consistently desire more time with their doctors to fully explain what is going on with their health.

Mobile devices can help with this because they allow doctors to work on the go. Having a tablet or smartphone in hand with the appropriate applications negates the need to run to a desktop computer and look up patient information. It means doctors can call other clinicians while walking out the door or look at EHRs in real-time while talking with patients. Mobile health increases efficiency and frees doctors up to focus on what matters: the patient.

IMO Anywhere gives clinicians the opportunity to make the most of all these mobile health benefits by giving them access to IMO terminology anytime and anywhere. No longer will doctors need to be chained to their EHR systems. With IMO Anywhere, providers get an optimized mobile solution that grants users access to IMO's Problem (IT) Terminology services. Plus, the product is equipped with enhanced drill down functionality that can be used to train clinicians on the go.

IMO Anywhere also adapts with regulatory coding changes. The product updates 10 times each year to ensure user have access to the latest ICD-10-CM and SNOMED CT codes.

IMO clinical terminology is the most widely used in the industry - find out why.